Robots Clear Vegetation, Search for Unexploded Ordnance on Fort Bragg

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Fayetteville (N.C.) ObserverBy Amanda Dolasinski

Unmanned construction equipment maneuvered through an impact area at Fort Bragg to chop down vegetation, while treading carefully for unexploded ordnance left behind after years of live-fire training exercises.

It's the first phase of a $40 million project to build an aerial gunnery range at Fort Bragg just south of drop zones Sicily, Normandy, Salerno and Holland. The range, which could take six years to complete, will provide rotary wing aircraft bombing and target practice for aviators.

"I'm looking forward to finally giving aviators an opportunity to train at a world-class facility," said Wolf Amacker, Fort Bragg's range control chief. "Currently, we don't have an aerial gunnery range. Aviators have to go off somewhere else to get qualified."

The aerial gunnery range project was launched in 2008, after plans for a different type of range were scrapped due to cost overruns. It will encompass a western chunk of the Coleman Impact Area, where soldiers have fired all types of munition during training exercises for years.

With that in mind, officials knew the project would first require people to comb the land for unexploded ordnance.

Bids came in as high as $60 million, but Fort Bragg found a cheaper alternative by contracting with a company that uses unmanned robotics technology -- eliminating people from the hazardous job.

Robotics operators from Colorado-based Environmental Chemical Corp. have been remotely controlling construction equipment to remove trees and other vegetation as part of the first phase. They also indicate where they find objects or potential unexploded ordnance to be investigated further.

Once the vegetation is cleared, a crew can safely move onto the land to construct the range, which is expected to take about two years. Finally, another crew will install targets, which also could take about two years.